Blue Seventy Helix

I bought myself a new wetsuit for my birthday, (thank you Susan).  It's a 2012 Blue Seventy Helix which is not completely new.  I found it for sale on Slowtwitch for half the retail price of a new 2013 wetsuit.  A brand new Helix wetsuit sells for $650.00, so $300.00 wasn't a bad deal at all.

I already have a Blue Seventy Reaction wetsuit that I bought in 2010.  My old suit had finally gotten a few nicks in it, so with Augusta only 85 days away, I thought I'd better check my options.  Since I was happy with the fit of my Reaction suit I decided to stay with Blue Seventy.  I just happened upon the Helix for sale and decided to go for it.

I'm hopeful that the new suit will improve my swim time by a few minutes during the 2.4 mile swim in Florida in November.  I swam the 2.4 miles in 1:16:35 in 2011.  That equates to a 1:59 pace per 100 meters.  I'd like to reduce that time to 1:10:00 which would be a 1:49 pace per 100 meters.  I'm pretty sure that a new wetsuit can't do all that so I'd better improve my mechanics as well.

Yes that's the Tour de France on the television in the background.

Thanks for reading.

Countdown Timers

I decided to install two countdown timers on my blog using www.countingdownto.com.  I purchased a Pro account for only $9.95 which provides a bit more design flexibility.  I purchased a Pro account because I think I can use the site to create timers for the Southern Crescent Cycling website.  We participate in a lot of events as a group.

Creating a single countdown timer was easy.  Creating two different timers for use simultaneously in the same blog article was a bit of a pain.  The embeddable script kept wanting to create two duplicates of one timer or the other.  I finally got it to look something like what I wanted and quite editing.  The problem apparently has something to do with the - value="eid=325798&fmt=f3" and value="eid=325779&fmt=f3".  When I edit the article text the timer script value changes for no apparent reason.

Anyway, here are my timers for my two big races of the year - Ironman Augusta 70.3 and Ironman Florida.

Thanks for reading.

Naked Lady Ride

Wednesday brought another long ride out of Peachtree City with the two fellow Ironman Florida 2013 entrants I rode with last week, Chad and Jared, and two new guys, John and Tommy.  Chad, John, and Tommy were wearing their Beck Janitorial team kit.  Jared had a kit that matched his bike colors.  I wore my Charlie Bates Solar Astronomy Project team kit.  Chad and I wore our CBSAP kit during Ironman Florida 2011.

Before the ride I applied some Chamois Butt'r.  More butt'r than I'd ever used before.  I was glad I did. Later, for a short run, I put some butt'r where my Garmin heart-rate monitor strap rubs on my "massive" chest.  I was glad I did that too.  The run was shorter for me than for Chad and Jared.  I was out of gas after the first mile and rode the golf cart with the women and children for about two miles before recovering enough for the final half mile sprint to the finish.

Back to the bike.  This would be a good time to include a disclaimer.  Here it goes.  At no time did I take the lead or pull during the seventy-six mile ride.  I was probably in the front a total of two miles and while there I was being pushed by the four beasts behind me.  I'm glad I got that out of the way.

Chad, Jared, John and I took off and headed north out of Peachtree City to meet up with Tommy.  With Tommy on board and John, for the most part, in the lead we crisscrossed through Fayette, S. Fulton, and Coweta counties.   The cities of Tyrone, Fairburn, and Chattahoochee Hills all came and went.  We stopped for a minute at Le Jardin, an abandoned high-end subdivision obviously started before the real estate bubble burst.  I took take a few pictures of the "Naked Lady" statute located behind the swanky iron gates and stone walls of the entrance.

(l-r) John, Jared, Tommy and Chad like the Naked Lady

I like her too

I came prepared for the ride with three water bottles, a Clif bar, GU Shot Bloks, and a banana.  After our stop at the statue I ran into an orange barrel barrier bending my rear derailleur hanger, lost my Camelbac water bottle on a gravel road, and lost my backup bottle of water.  Fortunately, we stopped to refuel at a gas station twenty or so miles before the end of the ride.  And fortunately for me, I didn't go down on the asphalt when I hit the barrel.  I recovered from the impact but had to stop briefly to clean my drawers (if you know what I mean).  My bike was rideable albeit noisy as the rear derailleur chattered as I pedaled.  One might ask how does one ride into a four foot tall, two foot wide orange and black barrel.  However, the more appropriate question would be how does one avoid one when it's obviously bent of destruction.  The answer to that my friends I don't know.

My rear derailleur

Chad's wife and kids followed us on the run and gave me a ride when I needed it which was soon after we started.

(l-r) Audra, Tamara, and Carter

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Trek from Trek to Trek Ride

Saturday, June 22nd was the 3rd annual Atlanta Trek Customer Appreciation Day.  The day featured a 60 mile "Trek from Trek to Trek" bike ride.  The ride started at 8:00am from both the McDonough Trek shop and the Peachtree City Trek Shop.  The plan was for the two groups to meet in the middle at Woolsey Baptist Church at the corner of Antioch Road and Hampton Road west of Woolsey, GA.  There was also a 30 mile option that turned around at the church and a 15 mile option that stayed near the shop in McDonough.

Atlanta Trek in McDonough

A quick briefing before the ride.

Derek Arwood's 8 bladed helicopter mounted camera system

Derek Arwood brought his 8 bladed flying camera machine along with us to practice aerial video recording.

The group stayed together, as much as possible, for the ride on GA-20 to the Atlanta Motor Speedway.  From AMS it was all out for the lead group until we reached the church.  At the church we had a brief respite before continuing into Peachtree City.  The last mile or so was on the cart paths and through a parking lot.  We'll probably have to change that next year. 

Atlanta Trek in PTC

At the PTC Trek shop we refueled and readied for the ride back.  As I was in the shop talking to someone my group took off on the return trip to McDonough.  I was probably at most 60 seconds behind them.  It just so happens that 60 seconds coupled with two red lights make it impossible to catch a group of riders bent on hurting themselves.  I really can't say for sure that they were hurting but I sure was as I came close but never could rejoin the lead group.

Back at the shop in McDonough Alec was grilling up a mess-a-burgers and hot-dogs.  My stomach had started to eat itself at that point.  I grabbed a burger, ate it, and grabbed another.

Chez Alec and Thirsty Rob

Burgers and Hot-dogs

Overall, or as compared to last year when the weather was reportedly freakin' HOT, everything went off without a hitch.  It was a great ride.  We (Trek) had good participation.  About 50 riders.  The route was good.  The weather was good.  The food was good.  Sign me up for next year.

I had to leave the shop for work soon after the ride was done.  I bought six raffle tickets to support the Wounded Warrior Project on my way out.  Alec called me later to tell me I had won a pair of sunglasses.  What a great way to end the day!

Thanks for reading.